Random House to publish ebook, print book of ‘Dandelion’ app

Tuesday, 15 January 2013 Books+Publishing

Random House Australia has acquired the rights to an ebook and print book version of Dandelion, a popular anti-bullying app for children that was created by Sydney writer and creative director Galvin Scott Davis.

Random House will publish the Dandelion ebook on 15 March, followed by a hardcover picture book on 1 April. Davis has retained the rights to the app, which will continue to be available from Apple’s App Store.

Davis created the Dandelion app in 2012 in response to his son being bullied at school. He initially raised money for the project through crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and self-published a small run of print books.

Random House children’s marketing and publicity manager Dorothy Tonkin told Bookseller+Publisher that the ebook edition will be available through all major ebook providers, and ‘aside from a few tiny tweaks’, the Random House print edition of Dandelion will be the same as Davis’ self-published version.

Tonkin said Random House contacted Davis about acquiring rights to the book after Random House associate publisher Jeanmarie Morosin ‘saw how well the app was doing on iTunes and the groundswell of media coverage surrounding it’. ‘Bullying is a big issue at the moment and Dandelion is the perfect tool for parents and teachers to open a discussion about it with their children,’ said Tonkin.

Category: Local news